


A is for Accident

by Aiyestel



Category: Star Wars: The Old Republic
Genre: Alphabet Meme, Diedre - Freeform, Gen, Mild Language, Star Wars - Freeform, Tatooine, smuggler
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2012-01-23
Updated: 2012-01-23
Packaged: 2017-10-30 00:20:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 805
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/325704
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Aiyestel/pseuds/Aiyestel
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Day 1 of the alphabet meme for Diedre, my smuggler on SWToR.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A is for Accident

It was an accident. She’d been so furious with that stupid boy that she’d thrown his toy blaster as hard as she could, watching in awe as it arced gracefully against the cloudless Tatooine sky. That awe had quickly turned to horror as it plummeted down to land with a resounding crash on top of the freighter that had landed in the spaceport not even an hour past.

 _Shit!_ She cursed. Oh, she was going to be in so much trouble. _Run!_ She urged herself. _Run!_

She would learn to be quicker, to think on her feet, but she was young and her frantic mind didn’t settle on one decision soon enough to make an escape. In retrospect the Wookie that grabbed her by the back of her neck would have caught her whether she’d run or not.

Certain that she was about to die she stared defiantly at her captor. If this furball was going to tear her limbs off she wanted him to remember her face. She felt relief course through her when he didn’t seem to have any immediate intent to dismember her. It was a feeling she didn’t let show on her face.

“What have we got there, Rodar?”

The voice belonged to a man that looked old enough to be her grandfather. His silver hair was shaggy and his glasses fell down on a nose that looked like it had been broken during a cantina brawl one too many times. Still there was something lively about him. Her nine year old mind couldn’t pinpoint what it was but she would learn eventually. Smugglers didn’t grow old unless they were good at what they did.

She was dropped unceremoniously at the man’s feet. Her shins protested as she landed—it was a long way down.

“Well, look at what we have here. When I saw a toy blaster fall out of the sky and hit my ship I thought I’d have some little punk to deal with,” he said, chuckling.

“Just because I’m a girl doesn’t mean I’m not a punk!” she retorted. Her protest had the opposite effect than what she had hoped. Instead of being mad he just laughed harder. She was used to having someone mad at her. Mother, sister, they always seemed to be angry for some assumed disrespect on her part. She understood mad; she didn’t understand this.

“That is very true,” he finally said when he had caught his breath. “And does this _punk_ have a name? I can’t call you ‘punk’ or ‘girl’.”

She hated her name. She hated when her mother called her ‘Diedre’, when the other kids called her ‘De’ or ‘Deeter’.

“I’ll take that silence to mean you have one that you wouldn’t care to share.” He ruffled her hair, “In that case I guess I’ll just have to call you Pup. That work for you?”

She felt her shoulders rise and fall in a non-committal shrug. It was as good as an agreement from her and that’s exactly how this stranger took it. “Good. Glad we’ve reached an accord.” His hand gripped her shoulder firmly and guided her towards the freighter. “Now then, do you know how to change the panels on a shield generator?” he asked.

She stared up at the ship. It was small for the type but it seemed huge to her. She had paused to watch it when it docked, admiring how fast and sleek it was, how it could go anywhere, how it could leave this place far behind it in the blink of an eye.

“No, sir.”

“Well today’s your lucky day. You’re going to learn and when you’re done I’ll return that toy blaster that banged them all up,” he said.

She didn’t tell him it wasn’t hers, didn’t tell him she could care less where that stupid toy ended up. It would serve that boy right if he never got it back. She didn’t tell him because she wanted to learn about replacing shield generator panels on a starship. She wanted to get grease under her nails and dirt smudged across her face. She wanted to feel the hard scrape of metal that belonged to something that could take her far from this place even if she knew it was little more than a fantasy. At least that’s what she believed.

All of that would change in time. This man would make all of those things happen and then some. He would show her how to swap out a ship engine, make the jump to hyper drive and introduce her to whole other worlds. She didn’t know it yet but he would take her under his wing and become like the father she’d never known.

You see, that’s the funny thing about accidents; sometimes it’s like they’re not really accidents at all.

 


End file.
